Bad Reputation
by Lady Basara
Summary: After getting caught in the middle of an international incident that she and her friend Maddy started; the Ministry of Magic & MACUSA are forcing Alexia to return to finish her last year of school to become a liaison Auror or face time in Askaban. Being in her twenties Alexia expects a rather quiet final year only to strike up more than just a friendship with the new DADA Professor
1. Chapter 1

_*Short Authors note: The only change I made upon second upload of this chapter is changing the chapter name.  
_

**Chapter 1: Welcome Back to Hogwarts**

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" Maddy screamed in Alexia's ears as she ripped off the blankets, pulled the pillow out from under Alexia's head and hitting her the face with it.

"Aren't you getting a little old for this?" Alexia groaned, attempting to swatting away the pillow.

"Never!" Maddy cackled, tossing the pillow back at Alexia and making a quick escape; knowing full well Alexia would hex her the minute she found her wand if Maddy was being too obnoxious.

Maddy was already in the kitchen eating breakfast by the time Alexia stumbled down fully dressed, brunette curls tamed and pulled back into a ponytail.

"Pancakes?" she offered, gesturing to the stack on the table.

"You make them?" Alexia asked suspiciously.

"I take offense to that comment," Maddy complained before conceding, "Your mum made them before heading to work. Speaking of leaving the house, how are we getting to school?"

"I was thinking we should just apparate into Hogsmeade," Alexia replied, "Dumbledore wanted to talk to us before the feast anyway."

"Awwww," Maddy groaned, "I was hoping we could take the train. Oh well."

* * *

About two hours later Maddy and Alexia were dragging our luggage through the doors to the Great Hall, Professor Dumbledore waiting for them just inside.

"I am glad to see you girls made it safely," Professor Dumbledore smiled, deftly acting as though he had not heard Maddy's overdramatic complaints of the long walk nearly killing her.

"Thank you, Professor. We truly appreciate all that you are doing for us," Alexia replied.

"It is no trouble at all," he replied, "Now if you would follow me the staff meeting is about to start. You may leave your things here, I will have the house-elves take them to your dorm room once we have everything sorted out for the two of you."

When the three of them reached the staff room the sound of chatter already filtered into the hallway, all of which died the moment Professor Dumbledore entered the room.

"Is everyone present?" Professor Dumbledore addressed the room at large.

"All except for Sybill and Remus," Professor McGonagall replied.

"Ah, no matter, I will speak to the pair before the day is out," Professor Dumbledore acknowledged, "Now before we begin our usual start of term meeting, there is one piece of business I would like to address first. As you no doubt have noticed we have a pair of guests with us today. As some of you may remember they are both former students of ours. Now they are older than our typical seventh year, but upon request of both MACUSA and the Ministry of Magic they will be finishing their education at Hogwarts."

"What could MACUSA possibly be interested in having two students at Hogwarts?" drawled a black-haired, hooked nosed professor Alexia had never seen before.

Taking Professor Dumbledore's pause as permission to speak Alexia answered, "Maddy and I had gotten ourselves into a spot of trouble with both MACUSA and the Ministry. Seeing as we are dual citizens, rather than attempting to dealing with the politics of charging the two of us criminally in both countries, they offered us positions as liaison Aurors for both countries pending the completion of our NEWTS."

The look of disdain Alexia received from the dark-haired Professor told her it would likely be advantages to avoid him outside of class.

Professor Dumbledore diverted all attention back to himself as he continued, "Now, seeing as you all have full schedules as it is, I believe having Miss Blackwater and Miss Scholl attend lectures with the other seventh years as well as having them retire to one of the house dormitories at night would be the best course of action."

In the end, it was decided that Maddy and Alexia would have their own private dorm room in the Hufflepuff dormitory and join the other seventh years at classes.

Once everything was sorted out Alexia and Maddy were dismissed until the welcome feast started.

After grabbing a quick lunch in The Three Broomsticks Alexia and Maddy wandered up the street. Their first stop was Honeydukes to pick up plenty of sweets for the year, both of the girls had a bit of a sweet tooth while studying for stressful tests.

Once restocked on quills and ink from Scrivenshaft's Quill shop the two girls split up. Maddy had wanted to stop at Zonko's Joke shop to stock up on pranks and Alexia headed to Dervish and Banges to pick up her repaired cauldron before heading back to Hogwarts in time for the feast.

Once settled up with Dervish and Banges, Alexia walked back to the stagecoaches where she and Maddy had agreed to meet back up. After waiting until nearly all the stagecoaches were gone, Alexia finally gave up on Maddy and caught one of the last ones before it left for the school. It was empty with the exception of a man who looked to be about thirty.

"May I sit here?" Alexia asked the man.

"Of course," he replied, clearing the seat so that she could sit down.

"I'm Alexia Scholl by the way," Alexia introduced herself, extending her hand to the man.

"Re-" he started to say before cutting himself short, no doubt spotting the Hufflepuff robes Alexia had changed into earlier, "Professor Lupin."

"So what year are you Miss Scholl?" he asked after a couple of moments of awkward silence.

"I am a seventh year," Alexia said, "What about you, Professor? What subject are you teaching?"

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," Professor Lupin replied, looking about as awkward as Alexia felt.

"I hope you know what you are getting yourself into Professor. Teachers in that position tread in dangerous waters, especially now that Harry Potter is around judging by the stories I have heard," Alexia exclaimed.

"I appreciate the concern, but you do not need to worry," Professor Lupin smiled, "Now have you decided what career you are going to pursue once you leave Hogwarts, Miss Scholl?"

Alexia let out an almost involuntary snort in response to the question, earning a raised eyebrow from her new Professor.

"Sorry, no disrespect meant Professor but I don't really have a choice in the matter," Alexia explained, "Either I become an Auror or face time in Azkaban."

The look Alexia received from the young Professor was priceless as he cautiously asked her why she only saw those two possibilities post Hogwarts.

"That is a long and complicated story for another time," Alexia said, as the carriage pulled up to the castle gates.

Much to Alexia's irritation, Maddy was already waiting for her just inside the front doors.

"What took you so long?" she demanded.

"Me? What about you? We were supposed to meet at the carriages. I nearly missed the last carriage waiting for your sorry arse," Alexia grumbled.

"Sorry, thought we were meeting here," Maddy replied. spotting Professor Lupin cutting through the crowd not far away, "So who was the suit you were sitting with?"

"Our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Lupin," Alexia explained.

"Think he'll be any good?"

"Not sure. He seems nice enough, but nice doesn't always translate to teaching ability," Alexia shrugged her shoulders, following the other students into the Great Hall.

"I bet he'll be a complete flop of a professor," Maddy exclaimed, "Did you hear what happened last year with Gilderoy Lockheart?"

"For the sake of the entire student body, I hope you are wrong," Alexia said, as she and Maddy slid onto the bench at the Hufflepuff table.

All conversation stopped when the first years were sorted and Professor Dumbledore rose and recited his usual welcoming speech. introducing Professor Lupin and Hagrid as the new staff members.

While Hagrid had received a much heartier applause from the students, mainly the Gryffindor house, Professor Lupin seemed happy enough for the welcome he did get from the students.

When dinner finished the two girls headed to the dorm room just barely making it out in one piece.

On their way out spotting Fred and George Weasley.

The twins and their siblings had lived down the road from Maddy and Alexia prior to their families moving.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Maddy asked Alexia.

"Depends on what you're thinking," Alexia returned Maddy's smirk.

The boys were so engrossed in their work they didn't notice the girls until they were right on top of them.

"What was that for?" Fred exclaimed.

"Gave us a heart attack you did," George chimed in.

"Just saying hello," Alexia smirked.

"And reminding that even though we are old and decrepit we still can sneak up on you," Maddy laughed.

They just shrugged and continued on with their prank.

"Who are you guys pranking?" Alexia asked.

"Snape," Fred and George said in unison.

"Is he the new potions master? Long black hair?" Alexia ask.

"Permanent sneer," George added, "Yes."

"Is that a delayed start trigger one of mine?" Maddy asked affronted and completely off-topic.

"Yes, but better," George started.

"As soon as it detects motion it'll go off," Fred continued.

"After giving us ample chance to get away," George finished, "The prank gets set off without our need to be there to set it off."

"Oh, it's on!" Maddy exclaimed.

"Really Maddy? You're starting a prank war with some teenagers?" Alexia exclaimed.

"You betcha I am," she replied.

Alexia rolled her eyes, "Well I'm going to unpack then go to bed. And if any of you involve me in a prank war, well Snape might just find out who pranked him tonight, regardless of if it was them or not."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The following morning Maddy and Alexia walked down to breakfast together gossiping about the coming year. Professor McGonagall came around with our class schedules half way through breakfast.

Alexia took a look at her schedule; it was not as harsh as she was expecting. She was only taking Transfiguration, Charms, DADA, Herbology, and Potions; the bare minimum to get accepted 'officially' as an Auror. Her week started off with Potions, Transfiguration and Charms. Her other classes started the following day.

"What does your schedule look like?" Maddy asked.

Alexia was in the middle of taking a bite of toast when she asked, so Alexia just handed Maddy her schedule.

"I'm jealous of you now, you have so much free time," Maddy complained, handing Alexia her schedule.

Maddy's week was pretty packed; in addition to taking Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions and Herbology Maddy had elected to take Arithmancy, Astronomy, and Divination.

"What are you taking Arithmancy, Divination, and Astronomy for?" Alexia questioned.

"I told you, I wanted to open my own fortunetelling store and if I don't take all my NEWTS in these subjects not only will I not be able to open a shop but my costumers won't think I'm credible," Maddy explained.

"You do know we have a deal with MACUSA and the Ministry right?" Alexia asked.

"Yeah, but a girl can dream, right? Maybe I can do it as a side business," Maddy exclaimed.

After breakfast, Maddy and Alexia headed to Transfiguration together. By the time they arrived a few students had already sat down and were taking out their books. The two girls choose a table a row or two back. For the first half of Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall talked about the importance of passing the NEWTS. Maddy and Alexia only half-listened as they hangman on a scrap piece of parchment the entire time. The second half of class Professor McGonagall went over the synopsis for the year. Everyone in the class was relieved when the bell finally rang to letting out class.

The rest of the week crawled by in a similar fashion as Transfiguration as every professor talked about buckling down and studying for the NEWTS. Alexia was relieved when Friday finally rolled around.

After dinner, in an attempt to soak up the last few warm days of the year, Alexia sat outside at the edge of the Great Lake. Maddy had ran off to ask one of her Professors something and said that she would meet Alexia by the lake afterwards.

Alexia found a particularly shady tree and sat under it throwing the occasional stone into the water, attempting to get as many skips as possible before it sank below the surface.

She was out there for a while before she felt the pleasance of another person standing close by. To her surprise it was Professor Dumbledore walking over, not Maddy as she was expecting.

"Oh, hello Professor," Alexia greeted him.

"Good evening Miss Scholl," he smiled at me.

"So, Professor what brings you out to my nick of the woods," Alexia asked.

"Good weather," he replied

"So how's your first week?"

Alexia gave a non committal answer making him chuckle. The two of them made small talk until Maddy found Alexia by the lake.

"There you are," Maddy said, to Alexia before turning to Professor Dumbledor. "Good evening Professor."

"Good evening, Miss Blackwater" Professor Dumbledor replied with a smile, "Well I should be on my way. Good day ladies and thank you for the company Miss Scholl."

"What did Professor Dumbledore want?" Maddy asked, curiously.

"He was just visiting," Alexia replied.

The two started a card game under the shade of a nearby tree; it did not take long before most of the student body was outside enjoying what was likely one of the last nice weekends free of work.

It wasn't long before a fight broke out between a couple of students, Alexia quickly recognizing fellow seventh years Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint arguing heatedly.

The argument quickly devolved into an out right fist fight between the two, causing Alexia and Maddy to jump up and attempt to forcibly separated the two only to get caught in the middle as Slytherins jumped to Marcus' defense and Griffindors jumped to Oliver's defense.

Despite the chaos, the two girls had disarmed or immobilized most of the fight before Professor McGonagall made it onto the grounds with Professor Sprout and Madam Hooch on her tail.

Much to Maddy's indignation, once the fight was broken up completely everyone involved including she and Alexia had received detentions.

"Be glad I am not deducting points from Hufflepuff as well," Professor McGonagall exclaimed, when Maddy complained, "I will send you owls once your detentions have been sorted out."

When the following Monday morning rolled around Alexia reluctantly rolled out of bed when her alarm went off; heading down to breakfast on her own when Maddy made no sign of moving faster than a snail's pace.

"Hey! Alex! Slow down! Are you ignoring me or have you finally lost your hearing in your old age?" Maddy grumbled, when she finally caught up to Alexia most of the way to the Great Hall.

Alexia and Maddy had been the indirect cause of more than one catastrophic explosion, causing major hearing loss more than once. Each time both of their hearing was easily fixed by the healers at the local wizarding hospital, but the jokes about going deaf early in life because of it, never died.

"No! You just need to relearn how to get around Hogwarts kids," Alexia quipped with a big smile.

"It was a lot easier when half the school was afraid of us," Maddy replied.

"Correction; they were afraid of you, not me. I was just along for the ride and as such inspired fear by association," Alexia retaliated.

"Oh, right! They weren't afraid of you until they heard about the Horntail incident," Maddy said thoughtfully.

"I'm still mad at you for that one; it was your fault I was in that situation in the first place," Alexia scowled at her, "How did you know everyone was talking about it, anyway? That was two or three years after we moved for the first time."

"I came home for Christmas and was in Hogsmead during a Hogsmead weekend not long after that; the story even made headlines here. And that was definitely not my fault, I didn't know at the time that the galleon on the floor was a trap trigger," she defended.

"Oh come on Maddy, who leaves a galleon lying in the middle of an ancient pyramid hallway?" Alexia rolled my eyes at her.

"Lay off it, I was 15 years old and careless," Maddy grumbled.

"Anyway what—Oaf!" mid-sentence Alexia walked into someone and would have fallen over if a large, warm hand hadn't reached out to catch her at the last minute.

"You should be more careful and watch where you're going," Professor Lupin said, kindly.

"Sorry about nearly knocking you over," Alexia blushed.

"It's quite alright, actually I was looking for you," he replied, "Professor McGonogall asked that I over see your detentions. Tuesday night's alright with you?"

"I don't really have a choice in the matter do I?" Alexia half groaned half smirked.

"I'll see you at 7 o'clock tomorrow," he replied with a smile, turning and heading back to the staff table.

"Oh, I really hate you right now," Maddy grumbled, "I've got detention with Madam Pompfrey."

"Helping in the hospital wing doesn't sound too bad," Alexia replied.

"Yeah until Madam Pompfrey has you cleaning up puke and bed pans," Maddy groaned.

"Oh quit being a baby, it's not like you'll be cleaning it by hand," Alexia rolled her eyes, "Besides it's not like you haven't cleaned up puke before."

"Yeah but it's always been my own," Maddy shuttered.

Alexia ducked out of the common room at a quarter to seven the following day and headed to detention, knocking on the door when she arrives a few minutes later, thankful she remembered how to get to his office without taking a wrong turn.

"Ah, Miss School," Professor Lupin said when he opened the door, "Please do come in."

"Ugh, do I have to," Alexia groaned, a broad grin giving away her jesting intention.

"I know you probably have better things to do," Professor Lupin replied, leading the way back into his office.

He scuffled a few papers before finding what he was looking for, "Ah, here we go. I had a few of my classes take pop quizzes that I want corrected, to get an idea of what they know. Then if there's time we'll be looking for some bogarts for my third year class."

"Sounds good," Alexia exclaimed grabbing a stack of quizzes and an answer key.

It didn't take the two of them very long to finish grading and organizing it all.

"Ready to go?" Professor Lupin asked once all the papers were filed away.

"I suppose so," Alexia replied, stretching as she stood up, "Where to first?"

"Well, I imagine being a student you might have a few ideas," Professor Lupin said.

"Hardly," Alexia replied with a joyless smile, "It's been years since the last time I was here. I'm still getting a bit lost heading to classes."

"Not to worry, there are a couple of places I believe we will be able to find a boggart or two," he replied kindly, locking his office behind us before leading the search.

"Now I'm curious about you and your friend, Miss Blackwater," he stated after a moment or two, seeming to trail off as if there was more question then he voiced.

"How much did Professor Dumbledor explain?" Alexia asked.

"Just that you both were much older than our typical students, directing me to you and Miss Blackwater if I had further questions," he replied.

"Why does that not surprise me?" Alexia snorted, "Well I suppose it's better than having him answer questions with more details than I'd like. What do you want to know?"

Professor Lupin was quiet for a moment seeming to consider it carefully before asking, "Why are you finishing your NEWTS only now?"

"You certainly know how to cut straight to the hard questions," Alexia replied, "My father worked for the Ministry as an ambassador to other countries, taking him all over the world. With my siblings and I being so young my mother, brothers and I stayed in England while Dad traveled around; but essentially being a single parent took its toll on Mum. So around my second or third year I was pulled from Hogwarts. Depending on where we were, I was either homeschooled or enrolled into the local school. Maddy's father was the auror that was assigned as my Dad's bodyguard so her family came nearly everywhere we did."

Alexia couldn't help but study him as she talked. The top of her head came no an inch below the top of his shoulder, putting him at roughly six foot one or six foot two by her best guess. His greying hair seemed at odds with the youthful gleam in his bright blue eyes and facial features; something about the scars on his face nagged at the back of Alexia's mind.

"Did you like moving around?" he asked curiously.

Alexia shrugged indifferently, "I got to see and learn a lot from other countries and cultures. Seeing some of the history of places like Spain, Italy, Greece and Egypt was incredible and Maddy and I got into some crazy situations that made us better witches, but moving around as much as we did could get rather lonely. We were constantly leaving friends behind if we even stayed long enough to make any."

The conversation fell silent for a moment before Alexia asked, "What about you Professor? Have you done much traveling?"

"I'm afraid I have not seeing much beyond England and a bit of Scotland and Wales. I ha-" Professor Lupin started to reply before a scream came from one of the rooms down the hall.

Professor Lupin and Alexia shared a brief worried look before drawing their wands and hurrying into the room; Alexia immediately recognized it as the staff room. Professor Trelawney had her back to them as she held her drawn wand on a man Alexia did not recognize. She was trembling in fear but fiercely firing spells in the man's direction, all of which barely seemed to phase him.

"Sybill, he's a boggart," Professor Lupin exclaimed, though it hardly seemed to register to her that someone was speaking to her as she kept firing spells.

Finally Professor Lupin stepped between the boggart and Professor Trelawney as Alexia stepped in to calm the visibly shaken Divinations Professor. Out of the corner of her eye Alexia could just barely see a milky white orb take the presence of the man before the boggart was banished into the nearby wardrobe.

"What happened?" Professor Lupin asked Professor Trelawney once Alexia had her mostly calmed.

"I - I was crystal gazing, contemplating on a lost scarf when my inner eye told me to visit the staff room." she exclaimed, still visibly shaken.

"Are you alright?" Alexia asked.

"Come, let's get you back to your office and make you some tea," Professor Lupin said kindly, when she didn't reply.

Once she was settled Alexia and Professor Lupin made their way back down to the main body of the school.

It was a moment or two before Alexia cautiously asked, "Not trying to sound ignorant or anything, but how did you know that was a boggart so quickly?"

"You don't know who that boggart was?" Professor Lupin asked, surprise written all over his face.

"Should I?" Alexia questioned.

"That was Voldemort," he replied.

"He who must not be named, you know who," Professor Lupin elaborated when Alexia just gave him an odd look.

"Oh, do you mean that blood purist weirdo that was campaigning to enslave muggles years back?" Alexia asked.

"He did much more than just campaign for blood purity," Professor Lupin explained, "He had gathered many supporters across the country and began to kill all those who stood in his way, attempting to take over the Ministry of Magic at the same time."

"Oh, I never knew," Alexia replied quietly. "I was in eastern Europe at the time and traveling around with a band of Gypsies Maddy and I became close with at the time; we were never exactly up to date on current events at the time," Alexia elaborated when Professor Lupin gave her a curious look.

The conversation halted for a moment as the two dodged into another deserted classroom checking under desks, drawers and any other dark area in the dusty room.

Alexia let out a blood curdling yell as she sprang away from the closet she had just checked, nearly knocking over Professor Lupin, who had been right behind her, in the process.

"I think we found another bogart," Alexia said once her blood pressure returned to normal.

"Would you like to do the honors," he replied, gesturing to the closet.

"I'd rather not," Alexia explained, "Bogarts and I don't exactly get along."

"Trust me, if you don't want an explosive disastrous fight, please leave me out of it," she added when Professor Lupin gave her a sceptical look.

He stepped forward to take care of the boggart but Alexia had the distinct feeling that she had not heard the end of it.

Once they confirmed that it was a boggart and managed to corral it to a dark cupboard closer to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Professor Lupin dismissed her for the night.

Maddy was already sitting on her bed reading when Alexia returned to the dorm room.

"Your back late," she commented as Alexia flopped on her bed, "What did he have you do?"

"We graded a few papers before going bogart hunting."

Alexia could practically hear Maddy visibly cringe before asking, "And how did that go?"

"Oh it was a rather interesting night.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:**

**Sorry for the delay, I had serious writer's block starting this chapter and rewrote Lupin and Alexia's conversation several times before I got a flow I liked.**

**I promise more juicy chapters are coming I just needed to set up a certain amount of familiarity beyond student/teacher first.**

**Thank you to all who are following this story, it was an unexpected and pleasant surprise.  
**

**Before we get started anything written in italics and single quotes are thoughts.**

* * *

"So, are you going to Professor Lupin's tonight?" Maddy asked.

"It's Tuesday isn't it?" Alexia replied in an irritated voice.

The two girls were in their dorm room getting a start on their homework; or at least Alexia was, Maddy, in true Maddy fashion, kept finding ways to procrastinate.

"What are you going to tell him?" Maddy questioned.

"The truth, if he asks," Alexia said, "It's not like I'm contagious or anything."

"But you do bite," Maddy snarked.

"I told you before not to piss off Puma, she's the problem child," Alexia replied nonchalantly, flipping through her Potions book for an answer to her homework, "Now get back to work, unless you don't want to go out this weekend."

* * *

When Alexia arrived at Professor Lupin's office his door was open and the man himself was leaning over his work.

"Knock, knock," Alexia said, raping lightly on the door frame.

"Ah, Miss Scholl, right on time. Come on in," he acknowledged her.

He seemed to analyze her curiously as she entered, dropping her bag next to her chair before sitting down.

"So, what are we doing today, boss?" Alexia asked, after a moment of awkward silence.

"Grading," Professor Lupin replied, sitting up in his chair as if her comment broke his train of thought and brought him harshly back down to Earth.

"How did your third years do with the boggarts?" Alexia questioned, as she pulled the papers towards her.

"Very well," he answered, "They seemed to enjoy the challenge."

"I take it there was nothing major stirred up by it, other than what I hear about a certain Professor," Alexia smirked.

"All I did was give my students the push they needed to succeed," Professor Lupin replied, failing to hide the mischief in his eyes, "Speaking of which, may I inquire as to why the aversion to bogarts?"

"Have you ever heard of therianthropy?" Alexia asked.

"Yes, I have," Professor Lupin replied, his confused expression telling her he was not sure where she was going with it, "Werewolf and animagi are both therianthropes."

Alexia nodded slowly as she thought about it, "You aren't wrong; though I am what most would probably consider being a true therianthrope."

"Being an animagus is something most people learn and lycanthropy is more like a disease with how you become one. I never had to learn to transform into an animal form," Alexia elaborated, when Professor Lupin looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Ever since I was born I could change into a snowshoe hare, but I seem to have a certain proclivity for collecting hides."

"When you say collect hides..." Professor Lupin trailed off, seemingly unsure how to phrases his question.

"Some cultures could magically bind the spirit of animals to their hides; which a tendency to choose people like myself as their 'champions' for lack of a better word," Alexia explained.

"You speak as though they are alive," Professor Lupin replied, hand stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"In a way they are," Alexia said, "With the hide comes their personality and opinions; it's a bit like having schizophrenia at times. That's actually why I avoid bogarts, I never really know what's going to happen."

"How many hides, as you say, do you have?"

Alexia paused a moment before saying, "Four, no...five, and I honestly don't think I can handle more than those five."

"Out of curiosity, what does happen when you try to take on a boggart?" Professor Lupin sat back in his chair, grading temporary forgotten.

"It could be a range from my fear, to one of the hides fears, to a mix of any of the above. Once or twice I did confuse the boggart," Alexia laughed, "But lately it's been Puma's fears and being one of my newer hides I still haven't quite been able to keep the almost 200-pound black panther from overreacting at times."

Professor Lupin spent much of the rest of the detention asking the odd question or two about Alexia's abilities, before cutting her lose just before curfew.

"So how did it go?" Maddy asked when Alexia entered their dorm room.

"I feel like I just played an intense game of 20 questions," Alexia replied, flopping on to her bed.

"Well to be fair, how many people like you have you really met?" Maddy snarked, "On an unrelated note, help me!"

Maddy gave Alexia the most pathetic look, waving her transfiguration homework in front of her.

"You'd think with a friend like me you'd be better at transfiguration than you are," Alexi rolled her eyes, getting up and crossing the room.

"Why bother learning it when I can just ask you?" Maddy snarked.

"You do know I'm not going to straight-up give you the answers to your homework. I will point you in the right direction, but you're going to have to find them yourself," Alexia said pulling Maddy's textbook towards her.

"Fine!" Maddy whined seeming to take whatever help she could get.

* * *

After the sharp shock of the first few weeks of term, Alexia and Maddy quickly adjusted to their busy schedules, doing their best not to drown in all their work. It was a welcome relief when the pair of them were finally released from weekly detentions late October.

Despite knowing Hogsmead would be packed due to the Halloween Hogsmead weekend for most of the student body, Alexia and Maddy decide to head to the Three Broomsticks to celebrate their new-found freedom anyway. The visit quickly escalated into a drinking game as they watched the teenage drama unfold in front of them. It didn't take very long before both girls were sloshed and gotten hungry.

Being just sober enough to decide they had spent enough money already the girls settled their tab with Madam Rosemerta, before weaving their way back up to the castle, making a beeline right to the kitchen.

The girls quickly lost track of time as they ate and drank their way to full stomachs before being shooed out of the kitchen by apologetic house-elves trying to prepare for that evening's feast. In way of apologizing for being ejected from the chaotic kitchen, the house-elves put together a care basket for the girls to pick at, which included a large bottle of gigglewater.

"Want to go to the feast?" Alexia asked, not to enthralled with the idea of staying in the dorm room for the rest of the night.

"No, I'm not hungry. Besides I have something else in mind," Maddy smiled evilly, as they climbed through the portrait protecting the Hufflepuff common room.

After depositing the food basket on one of the empty beds in their dorm room, Maddy grabbed the gigglewater and her prank kit before leading the way back out of the dorm room, popping the cork off of the gigglewater in the process.

It did not take long for the girls to finish the bottle as they made their way through the empty corridors, only to refill the contents with a quick spell.

"Where are we even going?" Alexia giggled at one point.

"No idea," Maddy replied in an equally giggly tone.

"You were the one with the plan, Ms. I-have-big-plans," Alexia replied, intending to just elbow Maddy playfully only to trip over her own feet and walk into her a bit.

"Oh, when am I ever the one to plan ahead," Maddy hiccuped, "Where are we anyway?"

"Um," Alexia said, spinning around dramatically as she reoriented herself, "Somewhere on the seventh floor, I think."

"Let's head back down," Maddy started to say before the sound of someone shouting filtered down the hall.

The girls looked at each other curiously before heading down the hall cautiously, quickly finding the source of the shouting. Sirius Black was verbaling assaulting a portrait threatening it with a knife, before slashing it to shreds when the woman depicted in it did not give him the response he wanted.

"Oi, wanker, what do you think you are doing?" Maddy shouted, both she and Alexia had drawn their wands, gigglewater completely forgotten.

Sirius immediately transformed into a huge black dog, letting loose a loud growl, ready to pounce.

"Oh, two can play at that," Alexia replied, tossing her wand to Maddy.

_'Don't touch the students or teachers, just him. And no_ _killing!' _Alexia told Puma.

With a resounding _'Fine!' _from Puma, Alexia cut the black pather loose, transforming mid-leap as she chased Black down the corridor.

Despite being much smaller than her in animal form, Black put up a surprising fight as the pair rolled down the corridor, bouncing off of the walls. Alexia followed him through the school, she managed to tag him going into some short cuts that she did not know about but he managed to lose her around the fourth floor. Alexia managed to track his sent down to the third floor but somehow he had managed to completely disappear without a trace.

Having lost Black's trail hurt Puma's pride much more then Alexia's and despite Alexia having given the order to let it go, Puma insisted on circled the corridor a few more times. Alexia had just convinced Puma to leave it and find Maddy again when the sound of cautious footsteps reached her ears.

Alexia circled around to surprise them from behind, only to realize mid tackle it was, in fact, Professor Snape and not Sirius Black, who was sneaking around the third floor.

Professor Snape took none too kindly to being attacked by her, dragging her by the ear to Professor Dumbledor.

* * *

"What happened to you?" Maddy exclaimed when Alexia finally ambled into their dorm room in the early hours of the night.

"Professor Snape just happened to be scoping out the third floor, right where I lost Black and didn't take kindly to being attacked from behind," Alexia explained.

"Oh, ouch," Maddy interjected, "What did he do?"

"Dragged me right to Professor Dumbledor," Alexia sighed, "I have detention for drinking on school grounds."

"With who this time?"

"Professor Lupin again."

"Am I serving time as well?"

"No, you're in the clear, you didn't get caught."

"Well, then you have my condolences and assurances that Snape will be feeling it later," Maddy smirked as she handed Alexia the basket of food that she had obviously been picking at in Alexia's absence.

"Do I even want to know what's going on in that brain of yours?"

"Oh, it's only that I think it's about time for some collaboration between me and a certain set of twins."

Sure enough the following day Maddy, Fred, and George let lose probably one of the best pranks either team had pulled yet, though news of Professor Snape being forced into a look that approximated the green dress his boggart counterpart had worn paled in comparison to the news of Sirius Black's attempt on Griffindor Tower, followed closely by the dementors interrupting the quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Griffindor.

The following week everyone was given a double dose of Professor Snape's foul mood as he covered teaching Professor Lupin's class for the week. Despite the news of the prank on him taking a back seat to more interesting scuttlebutt, Professor Snape seemed to know who was behind the prank and why, being unusually vindictive towards Maddy and Alexia.

When Professor Lupin did finally return to teaching the week after, students bombarded him with complaints about Professor Snape's unfair treatment the previous week and concerns of Sirius Black returning. Professor Lupin reassured his seventh years that he did have dueling in his lesson plans but not for a few weeks, before returning to his lessons on Patronuses.

"That's all for today, good work today everyone. Just a reminder, your essay is due next class, class dismissed," Professor Lupin announced to the class at large, before saying in a quieter tone, "Miss Scholl, would you mind speaking with me before heading to your next class."

Alexia packed slowly allowing students to filter out of the classroom before approaching Professor Lupin's desk, Maddy hovered at the door with a concerned look on her face.

"Go on ahead, I'll meet you at Herbology. Tell Professor Sprout I might be a minute or two late," Alexia said.

"Close the door behind you, would you Miss Blackwater?" Professor Lupin asked.

He waited for the door to click shut behind her before going on, "Professor Dumbledore owled me saying I would be overseeing yet another detention with you. Are we looking at possibly a common occurrence with you?"

"Oh no, this time was just a whole lot of rotten luck. Whether it was on my part, Black's part or both of ours, I don't know."

"I heard it was quite the scuffle, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Madam Pomfrey had me patched up in no time flat," Alexia replied something in the way he was looking at her in concern making a blush creep up the back of her neck and into her cheeks, "My pride is the only thing still hurting from losing Black's trail that night."

"He used to be a student here so don't feel so bad," Professor Lupin said.

How he said it illuded to knowing much more about Sirius Black than just simply having gone to Hogwarts, but something in his tone kept Alexia from asking more.

"How does Thursday sound?" Professor Lupin asked after a moment or two.

"Thursday sounds just fine."

Professor Lupin wrote her a quick note for Professor Sprout before sending her on her way.


End file.
